The Potential of Analytical Chemistry in Ghana

Everyone faces challenges in their work, but perhaps we analytical chemists in Ghana face more than most. Government and private company laboratories typically have a reasonable range of equipment that may include gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), etc. However, Ghanaian universities lack most of this equipment and where it is available it is often not serviced, and is consequently unreliable.

Analytical chemistry involves qualitative and quantitative analysis; it requires the use of knowledge in chemistry, instrumentation, computers, and statistics to solve problems in almost all areas of chemistry. It is an important tool for helping to reveal the presence of harmful pathogens or substances in soil, air, drinking water and foods that have hazardous effects on humans and the environment. Since it is a service discipline, it combines the skills of a chemical analyst with knowledge of the unique problems of other chemical disciplines, such as organic, inorganic, and environmental chemistries. As elsewhere in the world, analytical chemists have a great deal to contribute to the health and development of our nation.

However, exact science requires specialized chemicals, materials, and equipment for sampling, isolating, and performing separations, for concentrating and preserving samples and for validating and verifying results through calibration and standardization. These processes are often costly and time-consuming. This is especially true when strict accountability and controls are necessary to meet regulatory requirements, and when a large number of samples must be analyzed for the minutest quantities of toxic pollutants. Equipment, such as freeze-driers, HPLC, auto-samplers, sonicators and SPE-cartridges, are not available most of the time.

The challenges faced by our discipline at the universities in Ghana are typical of institutions in developing countries. They include the acquisition and maintenance of basic and advanced scientific instrumentation and of chemicals.

For example, we do have a Shimadzu atomic absorption spectrophotometer but we can’t use it to measure water and wastewater quality. The basic reagents for measuring biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), even to assess conductivity, temperature, salinity, turbidity and chloride are limited or unavailable here. It limits the frequency of sampling as well as the number of analyses performed on a given sample. The absence of other modern equipment, such as gas chromatography systems or advanced mass spectrometers also makes research very challenging, compelling most analytical chemists to work on aspects of metal and pesticide analysis that might not necessarily be hot research topics in the developed world.

Despite the drawbacks, we are still proud to teach new generations – hundreds of analytical chemists yearly. Indeed, analytical chemistry applications are among the key tools used by most students in research at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Unfortunately, here, we again face an equipment problem: it is over-stretched to service the large numbers of eager students.

We have the potential in Ghana to have a thriving little community of analytical scientists. We most certainly have the need for it: continuous environmental monitoring is a must here, as in all developing countries. The process of monitoring itself, and the incorporation of analytical findings into risk management decisions, is dependent on assumptions and procedures. In many cases, these assumptions and procedures are dynamic and can have large impacts on outcomes. With the right analytical equipment (we already have the appropriate know-how), we could be making a huge difference.